Does Aspergers define you?

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Does Aspergers Define You?
Does Skin Colour Define You?
Does Sexual Preference Define You?
Does Religious Choice Define You?
Does Your Favorite Food Define You?
Does A Degree Define You?
Does Your Nationality Define You?
Does Your Choice Of Music Define You?
Does Your Job Define You?
Does Your Favorite Food Define You?
Does Your Gender Define You?
Does Your Political Belief Define You?

I am getting pretty ticked off at being ignored and dismissed. I think it's fairly rude that whenever I speak up and give my thoughts openly, I am dismissed out of hand for no reason.

It's not defining you any more than anything else does. To think that AS is the only thing about you that makes you who you are is incredibly self-depreciative.

I agree it is limited and only deals with a portion of human diversity. However, for many people, myself included, the diagnosis was almost like a rebirth. It has explained aspects of my life which before had been hidden to me.

Asit was for me. When I was diagnosed at Age 8, and my parents told me, it was like my entire reality simply shifted onto another axis.

As I got older, I got interested in what AS really meant, and started in on 20-20 hindsight. I realized why I acted the way I dd, why I wanted certain things, why I got upset over others, and so on. That was when I started to look at myself in the present, and modify my own behaviour. I've managed to get a handle on my rocking, and I'm fully in control of it, and I can catch stims quickly, if I'm not already exercising my will.

But AS is not the only thing about me. I'm a writer, a poet, a part-time journalist. I sing in the shower, love to watch falling snow, have a goatee. I'm white, teenaged, and cynical for one so young.

It doesn't defne me any more than it defines anyone else with AS. We're all very different, and it's not AS that makes us who we are. Who we are is the sum of everything about us. AS is just another part of the equation, not the answer to it.

And what are we but human?

Yes, and I have been a college sociology professor for 27 years. I define myself much more by my profession than by a diagnosis.

Just because we use words in different ways doesn't alter my root point. The power of words that you speak of is exponential. If we're going to speak of this matter that way we'll have to agree to disagree, because I find the concept of nominalism hard to accept. The reason is that one has to pay attention to interpretation and comprehension. Words are tools - and like everything else they depends on how they are used. You take "neurodiversity". It's a simple description of the different ways a brain works - and yet the mercury militia uses it as a proverbial union symbol, and a union they are against. Words are the beginnings of labels - and unfortunately that's something we do have to adjust to. Labels. If the label is wrong, then we work to change it. Sometimes we succeed. Sometimes we don't. And most of the time we don't it's because we can't, thanks to people who persist in labelling us incorrectly no matter what.

I hope I'm making that point clearer. Maybe that's a bit too much for you though - hence the observation I made that perhaps we should agree to disagree.

And just as a general note, I never said that AS defines you 100 percent. I'm saying that AS makes a contribution. Everyone who answers "no" is in effect saying that it makes no contribution at all in my opinion. And that is not true.

What I disagreed with you on was the idea that, in taking a word and nuancing it, a person is demonstrating the power of the word in her or his life. I suggested the opposite: That taking words and redefining them can be an expression of personal and collective power.

For instance, many people involved in gay liberation call themselves "queer." The term "fat liberation movement" was coined by activists, not by opponents. The idea is taking a word, once used as an insult, and "owning" or reclaiming it. That way, it no longer has the original sting. The Society of Friends did something similar in adopting the term, Quakers (originally an insult).



lol. Well, I don't think it is too much for me. However, I am not sure if we are effectively communicating either.

We're getting away from the subject a bit here - but on the first example - didn't they do that to get away from "gay"? And for the record, the word "gay" is now being used to describe something dumb (and that's poor comprehension and interpretation at it's finest!).

Like I said, the use of words is exponential - which covers both your interpretation and mine.

BIG TIME!
A S defines me, it's the reason I go here, I write about it, it's always in the back of my mind, and you know what? I'm glad, this world we live in seems to require conformity to allow acceptance, you have to be like everyone else to be cool, and unique has become bad, it's just the culture we live in today, where celebrities guide the public more than the public's leaders. and I don't have to fit that mold. because I never will, and it makes me exstatic!

No, the use of the terms "queer" and "queer theory" by gays and lesbians predates the redefinition of the word "gay."



IMO, words, like Asperger's and homosexuality, don't exist. They are merely constructs. The sets of behaviors those words define are constructs, too.

Well, time to bring in ome deep nuaces. "You" is who you are as a person. It's your personality, the part of you that makes you who you are, and not someone else. Does Aspergers define this? Nope. It's the sum of everything that defines the you, not just AS. Whether you're white, black, straight, gay, pagan, christian, atheist, short, tall, liberal, conservative, emotional, cold, Aspie, Autie, a good dancer, a bad singer, a nice guy or a sweet girl, it's you who's the result of the choices you make, the things you experience, the world as you see it.

Decisions, actions, thought, likes, dislikes, desires, dream, they are what drive us, motivate us. They are the things that make people people.

Didn't I just say that?



I take it from that comment, that you have no faith in the dictionary because it's full of "constructs"?

I wrote:

You replied:


No, you said:


I was saying that the positive use of "queer" and "queer theory" predates the (unfortunate) recent usage of "gay" to refer to "stupid."



In nominalist theories of language, shared definitions are extremely important. That is because nominalists reject the idea of a direct correspondence between words and meanings.

No you misunderstood. My first comment was based on the change in meaning of "gay" from it's very first interpretation (happy) to the homosexual community. They were getting away from THAT interpretation. The recent usage of "gay" had nothing to do with my first comment that you quoted.

Okay.

Crap!

I am Australian - that defines me.

I am male - that defines me

I am straight - That defines me

I am white - that defines me

I am middle-aged - that defines me

I am middle Class - that defines me

I am a Father - that defines me

I am agnostic - that defines me.

These things are important defining aspects of my personality. As is Asperger's. No one aspect defines me overwhelmingly.
In fact many asects in that list are far more important to me and have greater implications on my life's values than AS.

So I say again Crap!

Sometimes I struggle to separate my disorders (I have anxiety and depression too) from who I am, since it effects my personality a lot. However I have things about me that I love, and I can't ignore them because I have others that seem louder and harder because they're negative.